THE LETTER - GOING to him! Happy letter! Tell him

GOING to him! Happy letter! Tell him --
Tell him the page I didn't write;
Tell him I only said the syntax,
And left the verb and the pronoun out.
Tell him just how the fingers hurried,
Then how they waded, slow, slow, slow;
And then you wished you had eyes in your pages,
So you could see what moved them so.

Tell him it wasn't a practised writer,
You guessed, from the way the sentence toiled;
You could hear the bodice tug, behind you,
As if it held but the might of a child;
You almost pitied it, you, it worked so.
Tell him -- No, you may quibble there,
For it would split his heart to know it,
And then you and I were silenter.

Tell him night finished before we finished,
And the old clock kept neighing 'day!'
And you got sleepy and begged to be ended --
What could it hinder so, to say?
Tell him just how she sealed you, cautious,
But if he ask where you are hid
Until to-morrow, -- happy letter!
Gesture, coquette, and shake your head!

More poems by Emily Dickinson

THE DUEL - I took my power in my hand.

I took my power in my hand. / And went against the world;

Emily Dickinson

We cover thee sweet face

We cover thee, sweet face. / Not that we tire of thee,

Emily Dickinson

ON my volcano grows the grass

ON my volcano grows the grass,– / A meditative spot,

Emily Dickinson

As imperceptibly as grief

As imperceptibly as grief / The summer lapsed away, --

Emily Dickinson

All poems by Emily Dickinson →